GALAPAGOS DUCK — Ebony Quill (review)

GALAPAGOS DUCK — Ebony Quill album cover Album · 1974 · RnB Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
dreadpirateroberts
Galapagos Duck are one of Australia’s best known jazz groups, having recorded or toured with varying consistency since just before the 1970s, right up until much more recently, and in a variety of incarnations.

Perhaps best known for their jazz-funk soundtrack ‘The Removalists’ their debut ‘Ebony Quill’ was released around the same time and may have been overshadowed a little, but it’s a great record too – not amazing, but enjoyable without a doubt.

Opening with an atmospheric, extended percussion and reverb-heavy flute exploration, summoning visions of deep jungles, it’s a restless piece hampered a little by the short bass and wordless-vocal duet in the middle, but which is otherwise a fine if misleading opener – as the rest of ‘Ebony Quill’ is less experimental. Except for the brief, mysterious pair ‘And Then Out’ & ‘Out and Then In’ that work as interludes, the album is a little more funk and perhaps pop influenced at times, throwing in a few covers, like the partially convincing ‘The Look of Love.’ It's a shame that it sounds a little too cheesy with sax playing the vocal melody (it works better with trumpet halfway through) but the bouncing joy of ‘Tennessee Waltz’ is a great contrast. ‘Grazing in the Grass’ however, (a Hugh Masekela hit some years before) is the best-realised piece on the album. Drummer Qua throws in a playful nod to the cowbell at the beginning, before switching to the ride. Keeping the distinctive trumpet part, the band don’t try and tinker with the arrangement, instead simply stretching the song out to incorporate solos and simultaneously seeming to evoke the Australian clichés of 'chilled out' people hanging out in summer.

Willie Qua’s flute tends to dominate a lot of Galapagos Duck’s sound, and though everyone else gets solo space somewhere in the eight pieces, the focus toward the latter half switches to the saxophone. After the fantastic version of ‘Grazing in the Grass’ the band slow things down with the dramatic but still effective ‘Rivera Mountain’ where the saxes again lead, and close the record with a clear homage to Herbie Hancock, whose ‘Head Hunters’ had been released just the year before ‘Ebony Quill.’ It's an influence that would be felt even more clearly on ‘The Removalists.’ Not to say that ‘Mr Natural’ is unpleasant, but it won’t offer up any surprises, even if the solos are energetic and the rhythm section certainly know what to do. It is a fitting end to the set.

While not as consistently enjoyable as their follow up, this is still mostly enjoyable R&B influenced jazz, with some welcome variety on the originals and a growing funk influence.
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